THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210006
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: PERRY MORGAN
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Bill Clinton, says a Republican operative, shares with the hummingbird the ability to turn 180 degrees in a split second. It has taken Bob Dole, Clinton's most likely opponent in 1996, a bit longer to bring off a campaign conversion from Main Street Republicanism to the red-hot ideologies of his party's right wing. And no wonder. The act of kow-towing is no mere nod of the head but gets into real groveling.
Dole recently went to New Hampshire to reverse his refusal there in 1988 to swear opposition, in any circumstance, to increased marginal tax rates. Dole thought then a president ought to have a little latitude to deal with unforeseen conditions. The notion's not entirely quaint, but he lost the nomination.
Presenting a profile in courage is not to be a feature of his third run for the nomination. He knows the right wing doesn't trust him, and so submits to being trussed up in advance. Last January, for example, he seemed dubious about pushing to repeal the ban on assault weapons. Now he throws in with the gun lobby with a written promise to make repeal a ``priority'' effort despite existing exemption from the ban of some 670 semiautomatic weapons.
After tut-tutting cynical House promises to cut taxes while balancing the budget, too, Dole now signals the Senate he'll go along. This twist may help some to forget that Dole attacked Reagan-era deficits with tax-increase proposals. If so, how sad: Fiscal responsibility has been a trademark of Dole's long career in the Senate. In a eulogy for Richard Nixon last year, Dole said Americans ``want their government to do the decent thing, but not to bankrupt them in the process.''
For Dole, doing the decent thing has meant supporting affirmative-action programs advanced by Lyndon Johnson and George Bush; backing increases in the minimum wage; and working with the late Hubert Humphrey to make the school-lunch program a federal entitlement. These exceptions to Dole's long-term skepticism of expanded government may now require backtracking (as he's doing on affirmative action) or knowing winks like the one he shot recently toward opponents of funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities when he asked: ``Why is the federal government in the culture business?''
It's a good question, but raises others: Why does the government foster the production of an addiction to tobacco and then pay the crippling health bills of users? Why does the government subsidize expensive vacation homes for private citizens? Before the first Republican primary votes are cast in the farm state of Iowa, will Dole ask why the federal government has sent about $10 billion to that state's agribusinesses over the past nine years?
The ironies of the Dole saga grow apace. Just a few weeks back, his handlers were redoing the senator's image, powdering out the snarl marks of the last-ditch defender of Richard Nixon and painting in the serene nature of the (genuine) patriot awaiting one last call to service. Now, at his direction, they're rewriting his record - minimizing his courage and compassion and showing how accepting he can be of the new right-wing gospels.
The number of primary candidates explains part of the shell game. Challenged for the moderate vote by California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Dole associate explained to Time magazine, the senator decided to contest Phil Gramm for the hard-core conservatives. ``It hurts his reputation for standing up for what he believes,'' the adviser said, ``but he's betting that no one can look less principled than Clinton.''
It may be a poor bet. Dole himself has put his record in play, and it doesn't square with what the candidate is saying and doing. Bush beat Dole in New Hampshire by depicting him as ``Senator Straddle.'' by CNB